Wang Hailing, Chen Enguang, Li JingJing, Ji Fanglin, Lian Yujing, Fu Shimin
School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China.
Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 Apr 13;16:884823. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.884823. eCollection 2022.
Configural face processing precedes featural face processing under the face-attended condition, but their temporal sequence in the absence of attention is unclear. The present study investigated this issue by recording visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), which indicates the automatic processing of visual information under unattended conditions. Participants performed a central cross size change detection task, in which random sequences of faces were presented peripherally, in an oddball paradigm. In Experiment 1, configural and featural faces (deviant stimuli) were presented infrequently among original faces (standard stimuli). In Experiment 2, configural faces were presented infrequently among featural faces, or vice versa. The occipital-temporal vMMN emerged in the 200-360 ms latency range for configural, but not featural, face information. More specifically, configural face information elicited a substantial vMMN component in the 200-360 ms range in Experiment 1. This result was replicated in the 320-360 ms range in Experiment 2, especially in the right hemisphere. These results suggest that configural, but not featural, face information is associated with automatic processing and provides new electrophysiological evidence for the different mechanisms underlying configural and featural face processing under unattended conditions.
在面部被关注的条件下，构型面孔加工先于特征性面孔加工，但其在未被关注时的时间顺序尚不清楚。本研究通过记录视觉失配负波（vMMN）来调查这一问题，vMMN表明在未被关注条件下视觉信息的自动加工。参与者执行一项中央十字大小变化检测任务，在该任务中，面孔的随机序列以奇偶数范式在外围呈现。在实验1中，构型和特征性面孔（偏差刺激）在原始面孔（标准刺激）中很少出现。在实验2中，构型面孔在特征性面孔中很少出现，反之亦然。枕颞部vMMN在200 - 360毫秒的潜伏期范围内出现在构型面孔信息中，而不是特征性面孔信息中。更具体地说，在实验1中，构型面孔信息在200 - 360毫秒范围内引发了一个显著的vMMN成分。这一结果在实验2的320 - 360毫秒范围内得到了重复，尤其是在右半球。这些结果表明，构型面孔信息而非特征性面孔信息与自动加工相关，并为未被关注条件下构型和特征性面孔加工的不同机制提供了新的电生理证据。
